Benedict Allen in New Guinea
A British explorer missing in remote jungle after trying to reach a
lost tribe of headhunters left a haunting final tweet before leaving
London.Benedict Allen said "don't try and rescue me" as he set off from Heathrow to Papua New Guinea on his quest for the lost tribe.
Fears are now growing for the dad-of-three who has not been heard
from since he was dropped off by helicopter into remote jungle three
weeks ago.
The 57-year-old, from Bristol, was hoping to find the Yaifo people -
thought to be the last tribe on earth to have no contact with outsiders
- to film them for a BBC documentary.
His haunting last tweet, predicting the perilous conditions he faced, said: "Marching
off to Heathrow. I may be some time (don't try to rescue me, please -
where I'm going in PNG you won't ever find me you know...)"
His wife Lenka said he was due to have started his journey home by
Sunday and was expected to get a flight to Hong Kong to give a speech
for the Royal Geographical Society.
But the explorer, who has no phone or GPS device, has not been
heard from in three weeks and did not show at the airport. A frantic
search has now been launched.
His agent Joanna Sarsby told the Daily Mail: "His wife Lenka has not heard from him.
"She is very worried. He would never miss something like the Hong Kong talk unless something had happened.
"He is a highly experienced explorer, very clever and
resourceful and adept at surviving in the most hostile places on Earth,
and he would never give up. He may not be a young man any more but he is
very fit.
"He was trying to reach the Yaifo people, a very remote and
reclusive tribe – possibly headhunters, quite a scary bunch. Goodness
knows what has happened.
"I just imagine he might have been taken ill or is lying
injured somewhere, perhaps with a broken leg, and maybe being helped by
locals.
"He never takes a phone with him – he believes in living like the locals. For him not to come back is really odd."
Mr Allen, who has made six documentaries for the BBC, is an
experienced explorer whose achievements include the first documented
journey the length of the Namib Desert.
He also survived a trek across the Brazilian rainforest in 1982 by eating his own dog.
The explorer, who lives in Bristol with his Czech-born wife and
their three kids Natalya, ten, Freddie, seven, and Beatrice, two,
appeared in a documentary filmed in Papua New Guinea earlier this year.
The island, just north of Australia, is almost entirely made up of thick jungle.
Mr Allen, who also once dated Mick Jagger's ex Jerry Hall, met the Yaifo people there as a young explorer 30 years ago.
In his last blog post, he wrote: "The Yaifo are one of the last people on the entire planet who are out of contact with our interconnected world.
"I’m hiring a helicopter to drop me off at the abandoned mission station, Bisorio – a forlorn place.
"Last time, the Yaifo greeted me with a terrifying show of strength, an energetic dance featuring their bows and arrows.
"On this occasion who knows if the Yaifo will do the same. Nor
do I have an obvious means of returning to the outside world, which is
somewhat worrying, especially at my advanced age.
"Either I must paddle down river for a week or so – or enlist the help of the Yaifo, as I did last time.
"So, if this website or my Twitter account falls more than
usually silent – I’m due back mid-November – it’s because I am still out
there somewhere.
"So, don’t bother to call or text! Just like the good old days,
I won’t be taking a satellite phone, GPS or companion. Or anything else
much. Because this is how I do my journeys of exploration. I grow older
but no wiser, it seems."
The explorer's sister, Katie Pestille, expressed concern for his safety.
She told BBC Radio Four's Today programme: "He knows all about that survival stuff. It's just what worries me is there are bad people in these jungles.
"You would think that they were totally empty but there are
people in there. I mean, I know more about the Amazon, but there are
loggers and drug dealers and all sorts of bad people."
Mr Allen's friend, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, who travelled to Papua New Guinea with him twice last year, said: "I would say the chances are that Benedict is going to be fine, I hope those aren't famous last words.
"Benedict always expected something like this. I had supper
with him just before he left and he said 'look, I'm quite certain I'll
probably be out of contact for quite some time and people shouldn't
worry about it'."
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "Our staff are assisting the
family of a British man who has been reported missing in Papua New
Guinea, and are contacting the local authorities."
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Via The Sun UK
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